John Cook, lead author of the 97% consensus study that’s been downloaded half a million times, has a guest post up at DeSmog that’s a simple history of climate denial featuring interviews with some experts and other great tidbits.
Another enlightening tidbit about the interconnected world of climate denial comes from Politico’s Morning Energy newsletter. Yesterday, it carried the news that Kristina Baum will be leaving her position as spokeswoman for the Senate Environment and Public Works Republicans, chaired by Jim “The Greatest Hoax” Inhofe (R-OK), to be communications director for the House Science Committee, chaired by Lamar "witch-hunter” Smith (R-TX), who has a history of employing Koch and Exxon operatives. Politico notes that Baum previously worked for Platts and DCI Group.
DCI Group is one of the public relations firms that’s been targeted in the #ExxonKnew subpoenas. (Small update there: ExxonMobil’s suit against the Virgin Islands will be held in federal, not state court, a loss for Exxon.) A request for info concerning DCI Group makes sense, as it is has ExxonMobil as a client (and also represents Big Tobacco, Koch-funded groups, the coal industry and others). Specifically, DCI was the publisher of Tech Central Station, a now-defunct website that peddled pro-polluter propaganda including climate change denial as though it were news.
Baum is replacing Zachary Kurz, who has recently moved to the the Cause of Action Institute, which is funded by donations from the Koch-favorites Franklin Center and Donors Trust, and is run by a former attorney for the Koch Foundation and House Oversight Committee’s Rep. Darrell “Unicorn Award For Denial" Issa (R-CA).
With all these GOP ties to what Bill McKibben describes as potentially “the largest corporate scandal in history,” it’s no wonder that Koch-backed groups, various GOP AGs and House members (all 13 of which are recipients of ExxonMobil money) defend ExxonMobil so vigorously.
The term “revolving door” comes to mind, but that suggests there are actually walls between these groups. A more apt metaphor might be that there’s no door separating them, and operatives go from one employee to the other, just bouncing around the room.
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories:
Democrats to Exxon: Stop Trying to Change the Conversation | A forum on Wednesday laid out the case for treating oil like the “new tobacco.”
97% global warming consensus paper surpasses half a million downloads | Over a three-year period, the study has been downloaded an average of 440 times per day, and the pace has hardly slowed. Over the past year, the download rate has remained high, at 415 per day.
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